


The 12 Days of Jersey VI (Christmas in Hawaii)

by blueofthebay (alemara), wanderlustlover



Series: 12 Days of Jersey [6]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-02-20 03:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/pseuds/blueofthebay, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/pseuds/wanderlustlover
Summary: Starting on Christmas morning Laura and Amanda will be bringing you The 12 Days of Jersey IV. A 100-word prompt every morning and evening for the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25th, 2017 to January 5th, 2018) detailing Christmas in Jersey, across several years.Find the first five years of the serieshere!





	1. think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed

**Author's Note:**

> This year, as a little change, we're setting Christmas in Hawaii, not Jersey. Never fear, we'll undoubtedly get back to snow and the frozen north next year. Meanwhile, please enjoy this brief tropical interlude.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** All I want for Christmas  
>  **Song:** _Santa Baby_  
>  **Year:** Down the line

“Are you trying to tell me that mistletoe isn’t a tradition on this sand bar you call an island?”

Steve’s seething. Danny might lose a hand, but it’s worth it to lay his palm against Steve’s chest. Feel him tense, relax.

(Minutely.)

“It’s a _bad_ tradition everywhere.” A correction, ground out. But he’s talking, so Danny will count it as a win.

“I see your point, but, you know, I seem to have forgotten to invite anyone else over.”

There it is, the glimmer of a “got it” smile. Making Danny’s widen. “Guess I can only use it on you.”


	2. Come on down and Join us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Christmas with the Kelly-Kalakauas  
>  **Song** : Christmas in the Sun  
>  **Year** : Early On

“You go to the beach?” Grace’s surprise is the picture of perfect. “On _Christmas_?”

Chin’s smile is bright as the lights on the tree. “Think of it like a big unofficial party.”

“There’ll be bands with guitars and ukuleles, and dancing,” Kono adds, dropping to perch on the arm of the couch they’re on. “More food than you’ve probably ever seen out there, and, of course, no one misses _Kanakaloka_ on his outrigger with the dolphins.” 

“Kah-no-lo-kah?” Charlie asks from Grace’s side.

The flash of a grin from one cousin to the other is everything a promised surprise should be.


	3. all these things and more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** New Traditions  
>  **Song:** _What Christmas Means to Me_  
>  **Year:** The first few

He’d been a staunch refuser. What’s Christmas without snow, hockey, hot chocolate, holly? Evergreens and red berries clash with Hawaii’s seaglass blues and greens. Traditions, he argued, came from years. Decades. _Generations_.

But they begin collecting without him noticing:

Lights on palms. 

Cookie swaps with the Kalakaua-Kellys. 

A midnight swim to welcome in the New Year. 

A trip to Pearl Harbor to set leis of white flowers in the water and watch them sink slowly down. 

A new bottle of old Scotch, waiting for Santa from between two beach chairs.

Until every odd year is as full as every even.


	4. 'cause I remember when you were here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Ghosts of Christmas Past  
>  **Song:** Christmas by Darlene Young  
>  **Year:** The first

“You do know we could move it, right.” 

Steve starts. Barely. Not hearing Danny until he was there, voice and a hand landing on his back. A small shake of his head. “It’s fine.” 

“Mhhmm.” The sound says volumes.

“It’s just where they always had it, where-“

“-where it was all your childhood.” Danny’s smile is easy. Too understanding. Concerned. “I _was_ there when you were telling Grace all about it.” Beat. “We could still move it.” 

“No.” Slightly certain. “It’s fine.” 

“You sure?” 

Steve looked from the tree to Danny and back. “Yeah. It could use a good Christmas.”


	5. all you need is a tree, some lights, about a thousand presents --

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Palm trees with lights  
>  **Song:** _The Christmas Can-Can_  
>  **Year:** Down the line

It turns out there is a point at which Danny will rethink his stance on fake trees, and that point is: palms.

Specifically, putting lights on palm trees for a look Danny calls “tragic” and Steve calls “festive.”

Sure, Grace and Charlie love the graceful fronds dripping with white lights, but it’s not like they’re easy to hang ornaments from, and every year Danny gets a little more nervous about Steve up on the ladder, alternately amusing and annoying Steve, depending on how far into the season they are.

So they compromise: palm outside, fake inside. And lights just _everywhere_.


	6. I'm all lit up like a...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Finding a real tree  
>  **Song:** I'm All Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree  
>  **Year:** Tropical Year(s)

“There are still more con’s than pro’s to this.” 

“Are you still talking? No one has been listening to you for the whole drive. If this Christmas has to be spent in a sand trap, _of course_ , the tree has to be real.”

“And tall,” Grace added in, only just not laughing at them both.

“N’ fluffy,” Charlie added, from below, holding Danny’s hand, and squeezing his free hand in demonstration. 

“If you’re sure,” Steve said, with just this side of too much of a smile. 

“Everyone’s certain. It’s either get on board, or get out at this point, babe.”


	7. and they're absolutely impossible to resist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** The Bah Humbug  
>  **Song:** _Christmas Cookies_  
>  **Year:** The first few

It really should drive him crazy, how much Danny hates Hawaii. Endless (and endlessly creative) complaints about the sun (it’s currently a windchill of -10 in Jersey), the food (the tuna they ate was swimming that morning), the music ( _Mele Kalikimaka_ is a classic, even Steve knows that). 

He hates the lack of evergreens and snow, even though no ice means safer driving. He hates it all, and he hates Steve the most, which he says every morning, noon, and night, muffled into his shirt while Danny fails to actually push him away.

Steve shouldn’t love it. But he does.


	8. I've just one wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Please come home for Christmas  
>  **Song:** Merry Christmas, Darling  
>  **Year:** Middle Years

“—and then I’ll take that travesty of present and drop it in the ocean and—“

There’s a snort. “No, you won’t.” 

A huff, that isn’t a huff, too. “You do know Grace or Charlie is supposed to have the largest present, right? That’s how you do parenting right at Christmas.”

“Is it.” 

“Of course, it is. Everyone knows it is.” No answer. Only that crackle of the bad line, to god knows where, he hates. Forcing him to. “You know the only thing any of us really want is for you to come home, right?” 

“Yeah.” Quiet. “I know, Danny.”


	9. In a dream I heard a voice say, "Fear not, come rejoice"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** The most wonderful time of the year  
>  **Song:** _Christmas Must Be Tonight_  
>  **Year:** The Later

It seems like every year, there’s less and less time to prepare. Christmas tackles the house when they’re not looking, and Danny spends most of Christmas Eve complaining that it doesn’t _feel_ like Christmas.

Except that every year, the old beach house shakes itself off into twinkling lights, breathes open its doors, and there’s Kono catching up with his mother. Kamekona teaching Grace how to pick out a carol on a ukulele. Catherine, sleek dress, sleek hair, collapsed with laughter over by Chin.

Steve handing him a beer, and when Danny says “don’t say ‘I told you so,” he doesn’t.


	10. one warm December

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Happy Xmas (War is Over)  
>  **Song:** _Someday at Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The Later

He wouldn’t be able to tell you how it happened, only that somehow, it did: the day-after-Christmas-Williams-McGarrett-Williams-Edwards gift exchange and cookie swap*, where nobody gets shot and nobody gets tea poured on their head and hardly anyone yells.

He’s not sure when Stan and Steve started getting along, or when he started using his knowledge of Rachel’s tastes to get her something she likes instead of something she wants to set on fire – only that it _did_ happen, and he has a new tie out of it (one even Steve likes).

 

 

 

 

*The latter largely an invention of one Grace Williams.


	11. Christmas Future is Far Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Ghosts of Christmas Yet To Come  
>  **Song:** Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas  
>  **Year:** Nowish

“If he moves one-inch closer, I’m going to—“

“—do nothing,” is said with an amused roll. 

“First it’s holding hands. Then, he’ll find some mistletoe from absolutely nowhere and then—“ 

“Which he’s just hoarding in his pocket?”

“Stop smiling, you animal. This isn’t cute. It’s a disaster.” 

“Mhm.” Then, “You know you’re going to love it, one day, right?” 

“What? It's--“

“They’ll come back with husbands, and wives, and _kids_. There’ll be everywhere, like back in Jersey. All the screaming, running everywhere, paper flying.”

There’s a too long pause. “You’re trying to give me a heart attack.” 

“I know you.”


	12. Do You See What I See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** The hap-hap-hapiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny Fuckin’ Kaye  
>  **Song:** Do You Hear What I Hear  
>  **Year:** Every year

It always seems like a disaster if you tried to write it down on paper. 

Someone falls off a ladder. Someone tracks in the whole beach right before dinner is served. Grace is panicking about something on her phone not working right. Charlie is exuberantly underfoot, almost tripping someone. Hawaii's neardo-well population think Christmas is the time no one is looking. Or Navy thinks December is the best time to page Steve. Or Danny’s knee acts up. And then, car does. 

But it still works out. Somehow. Every time. 

Everyone is still together at the end, smiling, laughing, raising glasses.


	13. Now Hear The Angels Sing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** We’re in this together  
>  **Song:** Mary's Boy Child  
>  **Year:** Early Years

Danny watches him, stooped to hold Charlie’s hand, and the easy way he can drag Grace from her friends, with that charming smile, over the top surfer boy act, and Steve’s good at this. 

Dotting whip cream on his nose until they laugh. Convincing them to lay under the tree and look up through the lights. Carting them off to Santa. Snowy volcanos. Ending each with that tentative smile, like he’s still not sure. What he’s doing. Whether it’s okay. Whether he’s getting it wrong. 

But Danny is. Danny couldn't want anyone else. 

For everything, and this most of all.


	14. It Doesn't Show Signs Of Stopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Pineapple Powder  
>  **Song:** Let It Snow  
>  **Year:** Second or Third

“It’s wrong,” Danny grouses, as the car door shuts. “It’s not real. This is Hawaii.” 

Grace answers, “You’ve said that a million times, Danno.”  
Half beleaguered teenager, and half the little girl not yet gone, still amused. 

“He’ll be saying it on his ski’s,” Steve tosses over the car. Grinning at Grace, then him.

“It’s a volcano, not a—“ Stops suddenly as snowball slams his shoulder. 

“You did not just.” Is being accented even as Steve throws another, getting a squeak from Grace as it rebounds off the roof and sprays her. Then, everyone is dodging for cover and snow.


	15. No Longer Lost With The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** An Old Fashion Family Christmas  
>  **Song:** I'm So Happy To Gain God's Love  
>  **Year:** The First

“How’d we do?” Steve asks. All too smug smile, and the barely-there ghost of a true question Danny’s learned to pick up in back of those blue eyes. The abandoned kid never erased by the man he became. 

“Well, let's see,” Danny shouldered close on the couch. “We got a tree. The turkey’s thawing for morning. Charlie n’ Grace are in bed asleep. The presents are out. Everyone knows when to be here. Looks like you’re only missing one thing.” 

Steve’s eyebrows go up, but Danny’s already pulling his head down, as the lights on the tree timer turn off.


	16. Your Baby Boy Has Walked Where Angels Thred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Santa's Little Helper  
>  **Song:** Mary Did You Know  
>  **Year:** The Second

“Who wants to help?” Steve had asked. 

“Me, me!” Charlie yells and this is how everyone ended up watching Charlie ride Steve’s shoulders to put the angel on the top of the tree. 

“Me, me!” Charlie yells and that was how everyone ended up watching Charlie sit on the counter as Steve & Charlie used Danny’s mom’s recipe to make the hot chocolate Christmas morning. 

“Me, me!” Charlie yells, even surrounded by a pile of presents, before he’s scrambling up to collect all the Christmas paper, while Kono drops by him, laughing, too amused,

“I think you have a new fan.”


	17. Hark the Herald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Myths of the Frozen North  
>  **Song:** Hark The Herald Angels Sing  
>  **Year:** Charlie's First After The Reveal

It’s late, dark, and still: “I hate this.” 

“You’ve been trading Christmas’s since before Five-0.” Steve doesn’t pretend to still be asleep. His steady words quiet against the bare skin at Danny’s shoulder.

“It’s won’t be right. Won’t be like home. Won’t be--” 

“Then, we make it right, and good enough.” Steve uses what Danny faltered on. Sureness in the dark. “We can start tomorrow.” 

Danny doesn’t say anything for a long time, and when he does, it’s not words – it’s an action; finding Steve’s hand, dragging it in his tight to his chest. Which sometimes means a lot more.


End file.
